U.S. Marine Impersonator Sentenced for Threatening 11 Women Across Virginia and Mid-Atlantic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 30, 2012

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – James M. Johnson, 29, of Roxboro, N.C., was sentenced today to 15 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for posing as a United States Marine online and threatening 11 women he met through Internet dating websites.

Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and John Wagner, Special Agent in Charge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Washington, D.C., Field Office, made the announcement following sentencing by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton. Johnson pled guilty on July 30, 2012, to one count of cyberstalking and one count of making interstate threats.

The statement of facts filed with Johnson’s plea agreement indicates that Johnson created an online dating profile posing as “Shawn Davis,” a U.S. Marine purportedly stationed at Quantico, Va. Johnson used photographs of a uniformed U.S. Marine in his dating profile and concocted a false backstory on “Davis’s” family and military history. Johnson, often using the screen name “Cuddleman,” used this assumed identity to befriend at least 11 women in Virginia and across the mid-Atlantic region between July 2009 and October 2010. Johnson expressed romantic interest in the women, then attempted to coerce the women to send him nude or seductive photographs, or disrobe or engage in other sexual activity before an Internet camera. When the women refused, Johnson variously threatened to sexually assault them, kill them or their children, or post altered photographs on pornographic Internet websites. In one instance, Johnson told a victim he would “slit [her] throat and send his friends to kill [her].” In another instance, Johnson spoke on the telephone with police who had been called to a victim’s house, and he threatened to “blow up” the victim’s house if the police did not leave.

This case was investigated by NCIS. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay A. Kelly.